Mafia bosses have ‘declared war’ against migrants on the holiday paradise of Sicily as one thousand new arrivals pour on to the island every week.

The feared Cosa Nostra are desperate to maintain supremacy after African crime gangs arrived with the migrants – and they are engaged in a deadly turf war.

An innocent Gambian man was shot through the head by an assassin in broad daylight sparking fears of a wider bloodbath.

Mayor Leoluca Orlando told MailOnline: ‘Palermo is no longer an Italian town. It is no longer European. You can walk in the city and feel like you’re in Istanbul or Beirut.’

Immigration to Italy soared by 90 per cent in the first three months of the year. The migrant population in Ballaró, the part of Palermo where the shooting took place, has risen from approximately five to 25 per cent since the migrant crisis began.

There is widespread concern in Italy that the number of new migrants exceeds the country’s capacity to cope – and the mafia is its biggest and most dangerous critic.

The mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando said: ‘In the past, when the Mafia was more powerful, it prevented any immigrants from entering the city. Until I was 30 years old, I never saw an African or Asian in Palermo…